Weathering Business Storms: Common Challenges and Post-Election Adjustments
Businesses today face challenges, or “storms,” that require strategic thinking and flexibility to navigate successfully.
I recently shared a post on LinkedIn about how bison are the only animals that face an oncoming storm when all other animals turn their backs to storms. It is believed bison face the storm in the hope of getting through it quicker. The post had over 20,000 views and was shared by hundreds of people. So, I wanted to unpack common business storms we face, some possible new ones we may see in 2025, and how to strategically get through them quickly.
Business storms can take many forms, including economic volatility, technological disruption, changing consumer behavior, a pandemic, and regulatory uncertainty. With the conclusion of an election, new policies, shifts in economic priorities, and emerging market trends can add more layers of complexity.
Some time ago, McKinsey studied businesses and how they performed during economic uncertainty. What I found fascinating, as I recall, is that 75% of businesses experienced declines in economically uncertain times while 14% grew. What did all the 14% of the companies that grew have in common? They had a plan, developed a cross-functional team and executed their plans, and, on average, grew 9% even in a storm.
Here’s a look at some common challenges businesses face, new challenges that may emerge post-election and strategies to help companies to adapt.
Common Business Storms:
1. Economic Volatility
• Challenge: Inflation, interest rates, and fluctuating market conditions make it difficult to predict future costs, demand, and revenue.
• Strategy: Adopt agile budgeting processes and build cash reserves to buffer against economic shocks. Diversify revenue streams to reduce dependency on a single market or customer base. If what you are selling is large equipment, like several of my clients, find financing sources now.
2. Technological Disruption
• Challenge: Rapid technological advancements, such as AI, automation, and digital platforms, can either help or disrupt a business, depending on how quickly it adapts.
• Strategy: Invest in upskilling employees and stay on top of tech trends. Evaluate which tools can improve efficiency or enhance customer experiences and integrate them strategically. Clearly understand your customers’ challenges and anticipate facing with the voice of customer research and ensure you have the right technology and skills.
3. Supply Chain Disruptions
• Challenge: Global supply chain disruptions caused by geopolitical events, natural disasters, or pandemics can impact production and delivery schedules. One of my clients was almost shut down due to the key material in his production that only came from Ukraine. Almost every business was impacted in some way by the supply chain constraints of the pandemic, and if your product relies on imports, you will face challenges in the coming year. Some of my clients had to act fast when the dock workers strike occurred, and critical materials were in containers but not being unloaded. Another client experienced a three-week supply shutdown due to the damage their supplier experienced in the recent hurricanes. The supplier communicated their issues, shared their plans and timing to be back in full production and developed a strategy with one of their competitors to keep their customer’s plants running.
• Strategy: Diversify suppliers across multiple regions and build stronger relationships with key partners. My client, who had bought from the Ukraine for over 15 years, discovered a similar material in Italy.
- Clients with parts in containers quickly found domestic manufacturers to keep their production lines running.
- Consider nearshoring or reshoring critical parts of the supply chain to increase control. Several of one of my client’s customers are sending their production tooling back to the US in anticipation of tariffs.
4. Changing Consumer Behavior
• Challenge: Consumer preferences evolve rapidly due to social trends, technology, and global events. Businesses need to stay in tune with what their customers value.
• Strategy: Leverage data analytics to track customer trends and feedback. Invest in omnichannel strategies that allow customers to engage with your brand in their preferred way. Invest in the voice of customer research and leverage the actionable insights your team discovers.
5. Regulatory and Compliance Pressures
• Challenge: Increased regulations, especially around data privacy, environmental sustainability, and labor laws, can increase operational complexity and costs.
• Strategy: Stay proactive by regularly reviewing compliance requirements. You can engage with legal counsel to understand potential changes and make sure your business is prepared. What new regulations will your customers face in the coming year? These new regulations often turn into new products and services. One of my clients developed an entire line of new products based on one state emissions requirement. These new products were the perfect solution for their clients selling them in this state.
New Challenges Post-Election:
1. Policy and Regulatory Shifts
• Challenge: Elections often lead to changes in policies regarding taxes, trade, environmental regulations, and labor laws. New legislation can impact cost structures and business strategies.
• Strategy: Monitor policy changes and understand their implications. Collaborate with industry groups or lobbyists to stay informed and voice your concerns. Prepare contingency plans for regulatory changes that could impact operations. Face the storms as they come and develop strategic plans to adjust and pivot as required.
2. Shifting Economic Priorities
• Challenge: Post-election, governments may prioritize new sectors for investment, such as green energy, healthcare, or infrastructure, which could shift market dynamics.
• Strategy: Align your business with emerging sectors by exploring new market opportunities. Consider how shifts in public spending or incentives might affect your industry and adjust your product or service offerings accordingly.
3. Increased Labor Market Challenges
• Challenge: Depending on election outcomes, labor market policies may shift. Minimum wage increases, changes to labor protections, or immigration laws can affect staffing and operational costs.
• Strategy: Evaluate your workforce strategy to ensure compliance with new labor laws. Invest in automation or efficiency tools to reduce reliance on manual labor where appropriate. Explore talent development and retention programs to keep skilled workers. One of my clients invented a robotic welder that does the job of five welders. This was in response to their customers sharing the difficulty they had finding experienced skilled welders. Another client conducted voice-of-customer research and found assembly labor was a constraint several of their customers were experiencing, resulting in orders being rescheduled. They developed a strategy and offered partial assembly at their plant before shipping and their sales exceeded plan and today this service is opening several new clients they have tried to work with for years.
4. Trade and Tariff Changes
• Challenge: Changes in trade agreements or tariffs could increase costs for businesses that rely on international markets or supply chains. When this occurs, we often see US based manufacturers also raise their prices.
• Strategy: Assess your exposure to international markets and explore domestic sourcing options if needed. You can build flexibility into your pricing strategies to accommodate potential tariff changes and reduce the risks. Secure year-long price contracts with key suppliers now.
5. Tax Reform
• Challenge: New tax policies, whether corporate tax increases, changes in deductions, or incentives for specific industries, can affect profit margins and capital allocation.
• Strategy: Work closely with financial advisors to understand the implications of any new tax laws. Consider how tax credits, deductions, or subsidies might affect long-term planning and cash flow.
6. Grey Tsunami
• Challenge: The Baby Boomer generation is leaving the workforce and retiring. Often, this generation represents your leaders and top performers in each department. With an improvement in the economy and their 401K nest eggs growing again, we will see a more significant percentage of the baby boomers exit the workforce. Coupled with growing retirement accounts, a growing lack of job satisfaction, and all time record low engagement statistics, I believe we will see a 30% increase or more of our leaders and top performers exiting in 2025.
• Strategy: First, I suggest an employee engagement research project. Like the voice of customer research, what is the voice of your employees? Do they have high or low job satisfaction? What do they enjoy about working on your team? What do they wish would change? What, if not changed soon, would make them want to leave?
- Review your data. What percentage of your current workforce might want to ride the wave of the grey tsunami? What are their roles? What is your succession plan for when they should leave? What is your training plan to prepare new leaders?
- As we help clients concerned that their top performers may be exiting, we capture their knowledge in the skills training design. Peer-to-peer learning is still one of the most effective training methods. We incorporate application exercises, and your most experienced top performers share tribal knowledge that is often not found anywhere in your training and onboarding programs.
- Develop a strategy that makes your top performers want to stay full-time or part-time.
- Develop succession plans by department now. Create a succession mentoring program and have your top-performing leaders mentor future leaders now.
7. Increase in Mergers and Acquisitions
• Challenge: Just as senior team members are exiting the workforce; we are seeing an increase in business owners who are part of the baby boomer generation planning to exit. What makes today unique is often, their children or other family members do not want to take over the business. They need to understand how to make their company attractive to future owners.
• Strategy: If you plan to exit in the next few years, we must prepare your business to drive the highest price for your business for a strategic buyer. We will focus on:
- Increasing revenue and gross profit margins
- Account diversification with a focus on not letting any one customer represent more than 15% of revenue. This is often accomplished with key customer growth plans and winning more customers.
- Systems and processes- ensure you have strong systems and processes that help your business run without you. I often ask CEOs preparing to sell their business: How many hours a week do you work? They proudly share sixty hours, seventy hours, or more. Strategic buyers want businesses where the owner can work four hours a week because of strong systems, processes, and a trained team.
• Strategy: If your strategic growth plan includes growth through acquisitions, you must prepare now. Develop your cross-functional strategic acquisitions team.
8. Sales Pressures For US Manufacturers Selling Internationally
Challenge: Companies who sell internationally should expect a response from their customers after tariffs are in place.
Strategy: Consider moving some of your production to international growth markets. In the late 1990s, I was responsible for identifying and selling international growth partners globally. We experienced great success in Europe and South America, but we struggled to have a strong market presence in Australia and New Zealand due to tariffs. We identified an ideal strategic partner and shipped injection molding presses and molds we had replaced in the US with higher cavitation molds to Australia. Within one year, our sales were just over four million dollars.
- What percentage of total revenues does international sales represent today?
- What are your largest countries?
- Where could you experience storms?
- What is your plan to face those storms head-on?
Strategic Adjustments to Prepare for the Future:
1. Agility in Operations
In a post-election environment, businesses should build agility into their operations. This means being ready to pivot quickly in response to regulatory or market changes. Develop flexible strategies that allow your business to adapt quickly without over-committing resources to one action.
2. Scenario Planning
Conduct scenario planning to prepare for multiple possible outcomes of policy changes. Map out the potential impacts of new regulations or economic shifts on your business now and develop a range of responses. This will allow you to act swiftly when changes occur.
3. Investing in Innovation
Innovation can be the key differentiator that helps businesses stay ahead of the competition in times of change. Therefore, it is important to continue investing in R&D, exploring new markets, and embracing technological advancements that align with your long-term goals.
As I have shared, new storms often result in profitable new products and services for customers who understand their customer’s needs, challenges, and goals.
4. Strengthening Stakeholder Relationships
Strengthening relationships with key stakeholders—customers, suppliers, employees, and policymakers—is essential after the election. Transparent communication and collaborative problem-solving can help mitigate uncertainty risks and maintain stability. We just completed a training program for a large plastics manufacturer, in which we emphasized developing win-win strategies and collaborating with suppliers and customers.
5. Focus on Resilience and Sustainability
Financial and operational resilience will be critical as businesses navigate new challenges. Additionally, sustainability is becoming a growing concern for governments and consumers alike. Incorporate sustainability into your business strategy to stay competitive and compliant with potential new regulations. Develop messaging about the sustainability measures your team is taking so the sales team can effectively share them.
6. Develop Continuous Learning Programs
We must assess our teams to understand their current knowledge and skills, which are required to succeed today and in the future. We must then develop engaging and effective learning and development program designs that provide knowledge transfer and emphasize application and role-playing.
What storms did your team face last year?
Are the storms gone, or is their impact still lingering?
What possible storm scenarios is your leadership team discussing and preparing for?
How will the election and new policies impact your business?
What new challenges will your customers face post-election, and how can you solve those issues with new products and services?
Are you planning on reshoring production due to anticipated tariffs?
What senior leaders do you anticipate exiting the workforce?
Do you have succession and training plans in place?
The business environment will always present storms, but companies can weather them successfully with the right strategies.
Businesses can maintain a competitive edge by anticipating both long-standing challenges and new post-election shifts. Those that face storms head-on strategically adapt and see growth, while those that turn their backs and ride out storms often fall backward and may never recover.
Agility, preparation, and a proactive approach to change will help organizations navigate uncertainty and thrive in an evolving landscape.
What do you see as your biggest storms heading your way?
What are your plans?